Edmund DurfeeOctober 3, 1788 – November 15, 1845

Edmund or Edmond Durfee (aka
Durfy/Durfey) Sr. was an American settler and

early member of the Latter-day Saint
church and is remembered as a martyr

Edmund Durfee was born in Tiverton, Rhode Island on 3
October 1788 to Perry and Annie Salsbury Durfee. Edmund
Durfee was a farmer, carpenter, and millwright. He married
Magdalena Pickle, and they later became the parents of
thirteen children. The Durfees joined The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1830s in Ohio. After
being driven as religious refugees from Mormon settlements
in Ohio and Missouri, they moved to Morley's Settlement in
Hancock County, Illinois, near Lima and about 25 miles due
south of Nauvoo, Illinois.
In September 1845, a mob of anti-Mormon arsonists rushed
upon Morley's Settlement. They burned down the Durfee home
and, shortly thereafter, burned down the homes of dozens of
other Mormon families. The morning following, Solomon
Hancock sent word of the burnings to President Brigham Young
in Nauvoo:
"Dear Brother, I will agreeably to your request send you
some of the particulars of what has been done. On the other
side of the branch, it is a scene of desolation. On
Wednesday the 10th all of a sudden, the mob rushed upon
Edmund Durfee and destroyed some property, and set fire to
both of his buildings. . . On the morning of the 11th they
again set fire to the buildings of Edmund Durfee, and fired
upon some of his children without hitting them; they then
proceeded to the old shop of Father Morley's and set fire to
both his shops. In the afternoon the mob came on again and
set fire to Father Whiting's chair shop, Walter Cox, Cheney
Whiting, and Azariah Tuttle's houses. At evening they
retreated back again. . . Last evening they set on fire
three buildings, near Esq. Walker's; and this morning we
expect them to renew their work of destruction . . . The mob
is determined to destroy us. The mob have burned all houses
on the south side of the branch, and left last evening for
Lima; said they would return this morning as soon as light,
and swear they will sweep through and burn everything in
Nauvoo."
After losing their home to the arsonists, the Durfees, with
other homeless residents, fled to Nauvoo for safety. Edmund
and other men returned to Morley's Settlement to harvest
their crops on November 15, 1845. They lodged with Solomon
Hancock in his unburned home about one-half mile northeast
of Lima, Illinois. Late that evening, nightriders set fire
to hay in the Hancock barnyard. Awakened, the Mormon men
rushed outside to fight the fire. Edmund Durfee, who was age
57 at the time, was shot in the back and killed. Durfee's
attackers were identified and arrested, but never brought to
trial, even though "their guilt was sufficiently apparent,"
according to Illinois Governor Thomas Ford. Edmund was
buried near his brother, James Durfee, in Nauvoo's Parley
Street Cemetery.
Durfee has since been described as "one of the most
inoffensive men in the country." Some of the mob engaged in
the tragic affair afterwards boasted that they had shot
Durfee in order to win a wager of a gallon of whisky, that
the stack had been set on fire to cause an alarm and draw
the men out, and that by killing him they had won the
whisky."
Following his murder, Edmund's family participated in the
Latter-day Saints' forced exodus from Nauvoo in 1846.
Edmund's widow, Magdalena, died during the hard journey near
present-day Council Bluffs. His daughter, Tamma Durfee
Miner, buried both her baby, Melissa, at Montrose, and her
husband Albert Miner, in Iowaville, along the Mormon Trail.
Eight Durfee children – Martha Durfee Stevens, Tamma Durfee
Miner Curtis, Dolly Durfee Garner, Delana Durfee Dudley,
Abraham Durfee, Jabez Durfee, Mary Durfee Carter, and Nephi
Durfee – went west with the Latter-day Saints and settled in
Utah.